Time Of Aura
by Average Human
Summary: it all started with a rainy night. In the Pokémon centre a strange man hid near the back of the lobby...
1. Chapter 1, A Good Place to Start

Four people. Children really, ran into the building. The building itself was covered from the vicious onslaught of rain the four had escaped by a bright red roof, dulled by the utter darkness of the sky as it's tears pelted down on everything. Not that he cared or anything, rain didn't really make a difference to him, but the arrival of people did.

He watched carefully as the raven-haired teen checked on a small yellow mouse Pokemon perched on his shoulder, a young blond girl was talking to her bag, but there was a presence of a Pokemon in it, so he didn't assume she was crazy just yet. a blond girl was ringing out her long hair, her soaked hat sitting on a bench the group had stopped next to. the other boy in the group, an odd one, he thought, was cleaning off his glasses, oblivious to the water that was dripping off his hair. he and the young girl shared a similar presence, they must be siblings. not that he cared or anything.

He sat on a couch, hidden behind a potted plant and a barrier wall, not that a wall that was three feet tall helped anything, but it gave him a measure of security. He was in a corner close to the front door, but if he left now, the children might get curious and talk to him, Nurse Joy had been hard enough, asking if he wanted a room, or just general things a person traveling would normally tell anyone who asked, anyone but him.

He should just leave, make himself invisible, and leave. Or just bolt, he didn't want to use that yet. not right now, he was drained as it was, he didn't need that as well. from the deep recesses of his mind, the word flung itself into his conscious thought, stay. Very well.

His attention focused on the group of children as they approached the counter, and rang a bell for assistance, it wasn't surprising that Nurse Joy wasn't there, this Pokemon center was out of the way, in a small town, a settlement really, in the middle of nowhere. she was probably in the back, cleaning or something.

it also wasn't surprising when almost immediately after the bell was rung, the Nurse appeared, and the five people he wanted nothing to do with exchanged a few words. after what seemed like a long time, but couldn't have been more than a minute or two, the Nurse began to lead them towards the hallway that led to the sleeping accommodations for travelers. one problem, and a big one at that, the group was heading his way. at first the man sunk lower into the couch, alarm bells going off in his mind, then full panic.

Drained or not, he held out his hands. the children walked by, but they didn't notice the man, well almost. he was invisible, but the raven haired boy stopped as he walked by and shuttered. The man froze. it was the blond boy that spoke up, as the raven haired kid just stared at the couch, seemingly right through him,

"Hey, Ash, 'you okay?" the boy, Ash, looked away from the couch where he was hiding, he scratched the back of his head, "What? oh, yea,I'm fine." he gave a small laugh, a chuckle really, and the group continued walking into the back of the Pokemon center, leaving the man to his own devices. That was when he dropped his hands, becoming visible once more, he then dashed out of the Pokemon center, and bolted out into the pelting rain, it was only a few seconds before the man was soaked to the skin, not that he cared, as he continued to run.

Had that kid sensed his presence? or had his shield faltered for a second? probably the latter, but if it was the first, then he had a new target on his hands, and by the looks of it, a tricky one, but hey it was all just a game wasn't it? As far as he knew, only one or two Aura guardians still existed, while many, many people did have the ability to learn, almost no one ever got the chance. That kid had the ability. That kid must be eliminated.

oOo

The room was well lit, light from the ceiling cast small shadows on the sides of the bunk beds on each side of the room. on each of the beds, sat a backpack, on the left bottom bunk, next to his trainer's backpack, sat the yellow mouse Pokemon. on the floor, sat the yellow haired girl, and her tiny orange muskrat-like Pokemon. it was clear that the yellow mouse was watching the two play. when the blond eight year old started to chase the muskrat-chipmunk pokemon, the mouse pokemon jumped off the bed to join in.

In the process however, the pokemon knocked over his trainer's unzipped backpack; when it hit the ground, a small box fell partially out, peeking halfway out of the bag, the blue box with a small pictures on the top and sides seemed fairly out of place, not that the girl noticed it at first. "Pikachu!" the girl yelled, and the yellow pokemon, Pikachu, sweat-dropped, and scratched the back of its head as it sheepishly let out a series of sounds, "pika, pikachu..." The girl when to pick up the backpack, only for the box to fall entirely out of the backpack.

The girl dropped the bag back onto the bed, and picked up the box. So many pictures, so many different people, she could tell some of the ones had Ash in it, albeit a younger version of the fifteen year old she had come to know. Another one, a bit older than Ash appeared in a lot of the pictures as well, a red head made an appearance in a few, along with a brown-haired-tomboyish-girl, and a blue haired girl in a pink and black dress.

A purple haired girl and green haired boy could be seen smiling at the camera in front of a huge towering mountain that looked like the hilt of a sword, and a spiky haired boy and an older man in a white lab coat stood next to Ash and two other children, they all looked about ten in that picture. another showed Ash and a young woman, maybe in her late twenties, they had the same facial build, and similar eyes, but other than that, not much similarity to the two, the woman looked young enough to be his sister, yet old enough to be his mom, the girl didn't know which, after all, she was only eight.

The door opened, and the blond looked up to see Ash walking in, he wore a pair of jeans and a plain black and gray T-shirt, his hat had probably been thrown into the wash with the rest of the clothes, towels, and fabrics (Nurse Joy was cleaning the lobby because of how slow travel was at this time of year, and everyone had offered to help) that existed in the pokemon center, and his hair, being wet, was in a rare state of non-bed-headed-ness, that the girl had to admit, looked a lot better than the bed-headed-ness state it was usually in.

"Hey Bonnie," Ash said as pikachu jumped onto his shoulder, "whatcha got there?" he motioned to the fact that the blond, Bonnie, had hidden her hands behind her back the moment he walked through the door. Sheepishly, Bonnie took the box from behind her back, "It fell out of your backpack, pikachu knocked it over." Ash took the box from her, and she continued, "Who are all the people on that box?" Ash laughed and as Bonnie threw herself back down onto the rug in the middle of the room, Ash looked at the box. after a few seconds, he joined her on the rug in the middle of the room, together, they looked at the small blue box with pictures on it.

"last time I went home, my friend Misty," as he said the red-head's name, he pointed to her picture, "made this for me," Bonnie looked down at the picture of a ten year old Ash, the girl named Misty, and the older boy, "Who's that?" she pointed to said older boy, "Oh that's Brock, in that picture he was fifteen, and Misty and I were ten, it was right before the Indigo League in Kanto."

"Oh." Ash continued, turning the box sideways, "and that's Dawn, and me and Brock again," he pointed to the blue haired girl standing next to him and Brock, in front of a stadium-like building, "what is that building for?" Ash looked at the picture again, "oh that? its for contests, kinda like poke-tri-atholans, but nothing like them at the same time." Bonnie gave him a dumbfound look, as did Dedenne, Pikachu just sighed in exasperation.

in an effort to get off the subject, Ash turned the box to the other side, showing a different picture, him, Misty and Brock, but with them was a girl, slightly younger than Ash, and a boy who looked about Bonnie's age in the picture, "these two are May and Max," I think Max should be a trainer by now, and May is somewhere in Sinnoh with Dawn last I heard from her. "When was that?" Bonnie asked,

"About a month or two. Max has been completely off the charts, even May doesn't know where he is. and Misty and Brock are both at their families' gyms in Kanto. "

"what about these two?" Bonnie pointed to another side of the box, where the purple-haired girl and green-haired boy stood smiling in front the the sword-hilt-mountain-castle-thing, "Iris, and Cilan, that was in Unova, they're both in Johto now."

"and these people?" Bonnie pointed to the last two pictures, both slightly overlapping, "me and my mom in front of our house," he pointed to the first, taken portrait style, then the second, "you know that's professor Oak, but that's Gary, his grandson, me, Yellow, and Green, they're cousins."

"Colors?"

"It's a family thing, I think..." after that, Ash opened the box to show Bonnie all the little trinkets inside. Immediately, a small, shiny, broken object caught Bonnie's eye, it was split completely in half, and the remaining letters on this half read, "-mon" on the top, and "-est" on the bottom, it looked kind of like the decorative tops of the keys Serena competed for in poke-triathlons.

"its a contest Ribbon, when May was completing in the last contest in Kanto before she headed to Johto, she got me to participate, we tied in the final, and cut the ribbon in half, she has the other half."

"it's so pretty!" Ash smiled at the young girl's outburst, even as she quickly lost interest in it and, setting down the half-ribbon by her side, looked back into the small box, by that time, Pikachu had curled up on Ash's bed, and was sleeping peacefully, Dedenne doing the same, only inside Bonnie's bag on the top bunk on the other side of the room.

over the course of around fifteen minutes, Bonnie found out more about Ash then she ever thought she would, about May, Max and their gym leader father, and May's Blazenkin of which looked a lot like her father's, in the girl's opinion, she squealed at how "CUTE" Buneary's crush on Pikachu was, and Brock's shenanigans, and how he would be brought down by Misty, Max, and even his Croagunk later on,

"And the funniest part was, Dawn and I could never figure how he recovered from the poisoning so fast, even trying to do it again in less than fifteen minutes sometimes! The randomness of his pickup lines was amazing, he never said the same thing twice and I've known him since my first journey in Kanto!"

why…" Bonny muttered looking at a snapshot of Brock being poison jabbed by his Croagunk, she laughed a little at the nurse's complete and utter confusion, and the looks of amusement and embarrassment on Ash and Dawns faces, the Piplup and Pikachu sweat dropped. "and that happened every day?" she asked looking at the picture in confusion.

"you do something similar Bonnie," Ash laughed,

"Well for me it's different, my brother is going to need someone to help him besides me!"

"Maybe..." he was humoring her, after all, she would probably be embarrassed by her actions when she was older, but in Ash's life, experience was the best teacher. he was about to show Bonnie a glass sculpture of Pikachu when Serena came in, her dress being washed as well, she was in torn jeans and a magenta-like pink shirt, and her hat-less hair was tied messily into a high ponytail.

"Hey Bonnie, are you using my hair brush on Dedenne again?" She stopped when she saw the small box in Ash's hands, turned on just the right angle to show a smiling ten year old with the Picture with her younger brother and a younger version of Ash, "Hey, what's that?" Her question was almost absentmindedly asked, as her eyes were glued to the picture.

"As a friend of mine put it, a treasure box?" it was obvious he wasn't sure about what to call the box filled with memories of his friends, luckily for him, Bonnie yelled over him with a, "It's a souvenir box!" and his unsure response was drowned out by the eight year old's much more clever one,

"Who's that?" Was her next question, and she pointed to the girl, May, in the picture,

"that's May, she lives in Hoenn, but she's in Johto right now..." Serena sat down, "yea, but didn't she live in Johto at first?" Ash shrugged, he had never asked about his friends younger selves unless they started the conversation, if they shared, they shared, after all, he had a few things he didn't want people to know anyway.

"Yea, I think she was in my class one year, or it could've been a daycare, probably a daycare."

"You lived in Johto?"

"Yea, then when my parents divorced, my mom and I moved here."

Ash nodded in understanding, although he had never actually moved, his dad had left at an early age, although, he was starting to get a few suspicions on the circumstances, after all, there were no pictures of him in the house, they all disappeared when he was around four.

When the two turned their attention back to Bonnie, of whom Ash had handed the box so she could look while he talked to Serena, only to find the box neatly closed, and Bonnie nowhere to be seen.

"She probably went to go find Clement, I'm going to go ask if I can make some cookies, want to come? I can teach you a few things." Ash put his hands up in surrender, "No thanks, trust me Serena, you don't want me anywhere near a kitchen. I'm a disaster!" Serena shrugged, "Okay.."

oOo

_The rain still pounded outside as the man ran through it, but something was off about the figure, he was enveloped in a blue glow, rain seemed to bouncing off him as he ran, though the ground was flooded and his feet made splashes in the puddles. his boots were completely dry, his coat never seemed wet in the first place, his entirety seemed aglow, as though he was from another world, it was almost impossible to believe he was human, anyone who saw him could swear that he wasn't. but no one saw him, he was alone in the forlorn woods._

_He stopped in front of an ancient sequoia, and looked around him to make sure no one was lurking, slowly he raised his hand, still aglow like the rest of his body and clothing, he wore brown finger-less gloves, each with a small stone set into the top of them, a sphere of blue materialized on his palm._

_Growing larger the longer he held it out, at the same time a door in the tree seemed to be opening up, slowly and steadily. the sphere grew, the door grew. A crash sounded somewhere close by, the man froze, the sphere disappearing from his palm, the door disappearing a few moments later, the glowing man darted off into the night, unaware that it had just been the wind._

A/N: So yea, I rewrote the chapter, after all, it's been three years, so before finishing it, I think I'll rewrite the story, fix up inconsistencies, clean up the plot line, and stuff, but I do have a lot of school work, I always hate it when people joke that Homeschoolers only do Homework, sometimes I'll be doing school work from 6:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and i don't go to school, I DO school... Its a fun world I live in. Kind of...


	2. Chapter 2

A/N; yea, it's been a while, I'm so sorry! I don't own Pokémon, but I do own Yonah (yo nuh) meaning bear in Cherokee, he is my OC, but don't be alarmed, his presence is that of a bad guy, trained under a secret society of Aura users, he also was in business contact with Hunter J, only he knows that she survived, and where her current position is. On with the story!

The sun glittered down on the wet earth, its reflection aglow in the array of puddles on the ground outside the Pokémon centre. It was still early morning, the bright day-star had only risen around half an hour ago, only a few people were awake, one being a raven-haired boy, and a yellow mouse Pokémon. They sat looking at the many pictures and objects, the ones that had been shown to their friends, and just a few more. Ones he had brought everywhere he went, bringing with him the promise, "I'll come home very soon."

The promise hadn't come for ten years, it was just a lost memory to the town of pallet, but Ash refused. He outright refused to believe he was gone; he had to be somewhere, anywhere, as he had never broken a promise before that night ten years ago. And so Ash waited, even after he left on his first journey, he waited, but he never told anyone. Not even his closest friends, he knew one day he would have to tell someone, but let that wait until the last possible moment. Above him he heard a stir. He was sitting on his bed, the bottom bunk; above him was Serena, most likely just waking up. Quickly he put the pictures into his backpack and stood up. Walking over to Clement he shook his early childhood memories away and prodded his friend awake.

"Clement, Clement wake up, unless you don't want to go get breakfast." Behind him he could hear Serena climbing down the ladder and grabbing her bag. Pikachu had jumped to the bunk above Clement and was waking up Bonny and Dedenne. Clement moaned and stuck his head under his pillow.

"Well suit yourself." Ash mumbled and relented. Walking away he opened the curtains, just as Bonny jumped off her bunk, and straight onto Clement. Serena gasped as Clement yelled in pain and immediately sat up, the pillow being thrown halfway across the room in the process.

"Ash told you to get up Big Brother!"

"Uhg Bonny!" Clement yelled pushing her off of his bed and getting out of the tangle of blankets he was encased in. Bony grabbed her bag and followed Serena to the bathrooms Ash, already being dressed, handed Clement his backpack. His friend took the somewhat-identified machinery and left for the bathrooms as well.

After putting his backpack on, Ash let Pikachu jump on his shoulder and walked out the bedroom, looking back to make sure no one had forgotten anything, before closing the door quietly, and walking out into the lobby. Passing by the TV he heard the World Pokémon Trainer News broadcasting a previous battle, and summarizing the trainer's results. He stopped and listened,

"After competing in the Wallace cup this young trainer plans to resume his quest to claim the eight gym badges of the Kanto league. Having become a trainer earlier this year, this young man has already traveled around two different regions with his older sister and a few friends, after receiving his trainer's license, he again traveled Hoenn and competed in the league there. After losing in the sixteenth round, he moved on to the Kanto league. Max Maple has competed in the Wallace cup against his sister, but only reached the second of the battle rounds, losing to his older sister, and ending his contest streak."

Ash stood listening to his young friend's progress, when suddenly the woman's voice became a bit more urgent.

"The Wallace Cup ended three months ago, and neither his family, nor any of his friends have heard from him since. The two people he was traveling with claim he disappeared two months ago, the local officer Jenny told them to wait a few months because of trainers' natures to disappear sometimes to train. However it now appears something sinister has happened to the young trainer. We urge anyone who has heard from Max Maple to call in with any information. On to the next report."

Ash stood frozen, not even noticing his friends coming up behind him, not noticing Serena ask if he was ok. He only shook himself out of it when Pikachu gave a light thunder bolt, not enough for any pain or falling to the ground, just enough to feel like you got shocked by static electricity.

"Ash, are you ok?" Clement asked, gently placing a hand on his friend's shoulder,

"Y-yea…" Pikachu cocked his head, "Pika…?"

"You don't seem too fine." Serena said, placing her hands on her hips. Bonny crossed her arms on her chest, Dedenne, of which was sitting on her head, Mimicked her position, "Tell us now Ash!" Bonny yelled, making a young trainer who must have arrived late in the night look over. Ash sighed, "My friend, Max, he's disappeared, he was in Kanto."

Serena gasped, "Not Max Maple, right?" Ash gave her a sad look, Bonny looked down at the ground, causing Dedenne to lose its balance and fall off, only to be caught by Clement who handed the small Pokémon to Bonny.

"Gee, I hope they find him…" was all Clement could think of to say to the evident worry on his friends face, "Me too…" Ash whispered, as the four walked to the restraint area to eat breakfast before leaving.

oOo

Small patches of light reached through to forest floor as darkness reigned supreme. You could never guess that it was still early morning; the light was so well dispersed it seemed to be nighttime. The four travelers walked through the darkness of the thick forest, following the path closely, "Clement, are you sure we're not lost?"

"Um,"

Ash groaned letting his question go unanswered, as it was obvious to the group that they were, in fact, lost. The leaves rustled as the wind blew gently through, perfect to mask the ever so quiet footsteps following them through the darkness, trailing their every move, perfectly hidden within the darkness,

_Please don't sense me…_

The voice through itself into Ash's mind full force, causing him to stop and shutter. Serena stopped as well and looked at him in confusion,

"Everything ok, Ash?"

"Um, yea, fine." Ash managed to get out, and continued forward to catch up with his friends, leaving Serena to look after him and wonder if he was telling the truth. The person trailing him stood stock still, praying that the kid hadn't in fact sensed him, and was just a little anxious in the dark forest.

Continuing on was proving to be tiring, and Bonny had begun the endless game of, "Are we there yet? How about now? Are we there now?"

Clement had just about had enough, "Bonny! Please. Be. Quiet."

"How about we stop for lunch then…" Ash suggested seeing all his friends' patience worn thin.

"Yea great idea!" Serena said, fully knowing that she would agree with Ash no matter what he had suggested. So the group searched for a clearing. Fifteen minutes into the search, however, coming up empty they decided to just sit on a few fallen logs to enjoy their food. Halfway through their meal though, Ash shuttered again, words sending themselves into his mind were overwhelming him, but there was no sense to them, it was all jibber-jabber, with no reason.

He felt like his mind was going to explode, as he sat frozen, his food half eaten sitting peacefully in his lap as he stared into the distance. Pikachu, who had been playing with Dedenne and Bonny, suddenly felt that something was very wrong. His partner was almost never as quiet and still as this for so long. "Pika…?" Pikachu asked, jumping into Ash's lap in worry. When he did so, Ash jumped up in surprise, knocking Pikachu off of his lap in the process, he also spilled the remainder of his lunch on the ground.

"Ash, are you ok?" Clement asked, worry evident on his face as he placed a hand gently on his friend's shoulder, Serena stood up as well, while Bonny sat frozen, sitting cross-legged on the ground, Dedenne, who was sitting on her lap, stared at the twelve-year-old trainer **(He is definitely not ten, HE LOOKS TWELVE SO THAT'S HIS AGE IN THIS, AND SO HELP ME, IF THEY EVEN THINK OF REVERTING HIS AGE TO TEN **_**AGAIN**_** THAN I WILL-) **

The voices started to fade from his mind as the seconds progressed, it annoyed him, he was just starting to make sense of the words; they were in another language, one he didn't understand, yet at the same time could understand. He shook his head to clear the thought, it wasn't logical, it didn't make sense.

"Yea I'm fine, just a little tired I guess." Clement sighed, he didn't believe his friend for a second, something was obviously wrong, he just couldn't place it.

"yea, ok then, should we go?" asked Clement in an attempt to change the subject. Ash however only nodded. Pikachu, clearly contemplating the mental state of his friend, jumped onto Ash's shoulder, after Ash grabbed his backpack that is. The trees were starting to thin out as the group followed the path through the dense forest. As they left the heart, the forest became much more welcoming, and Pokémon could be found wherever you looked.

A green shape sprang from the bushes and ran across the path. It was a small blur, but Pikachu knew what it was and jumped off Ash's shoulder to chase after it,

"Pikachu! Wait!" Ash yelled dashing into the bushes, his friends following close behind. Following Pikachu through the light underbrush proved tiring, so it was a good thing when the green blur stopped to reveal itself to be a,

"A Treeco?" Ash asked in confusion as the Pokémon assumed a protective stance. Serena stepped forward; she was now a few feet in front of the group, softly she spoke to the small Pokémon,

"We aren't going to hurt you; we just want to know what you're running from. Treeco? Right?" Serena bent down to sit at eye level with the small Hoenn starter, the Treeco nodded and started to spew out words only using sounds from its name, "tree, tree, Treeco, co, tree!" The group stared at it blankly, as it had spoken way to fast to be understood by humans, however the Pokémon understood, and Pikachu bounded up to the Pokémon and took a piece of paper the Treeco held towards the mouse Pokémon.

Pikachu then ran back to Ash and dropped the paper into the trainer's out held hands, "Pikapi, Pikachu, pika, chu, chu, pika!" Ash nodded and opened the paper, he read its contents aloud, his face widening in shock as he did so, "date, 8/20/2014 outside Couriway Town. 9/2/2014 Coumarine City. 10/20/2014 outside Coumarine City in a base or something, inside a tree, I think. Help, I am from Hoenn. Name: Max Masoto Maple."

Ash looked up from the paper and met the curious faces of his friends, Serena was horrified, Clement and Bonny looked worried. Serena grabbed the note from Ash's hand and read it herself, just to make sure that he wasn't making anything up.

oOo

May ran through the forest. That Treeco had run so fast. It flew by her, and it looked like Max's Treeco. She had taken off after it, but had lost it soon afterward. She pushed through the brush and found herself back on the pathway.

"Great now I'm lost…" she whined she shouldn't have left Drew behind. Realization of her mistake dawned on her and she anxiously yelled out her traveling partner's name, "Drew? Hey Drew, can you hear me!?" she yelled into the late afternoon heat. After waiting a few moments, she heard a faint reply, "May? Keep talking so I can follow your voice!" _man, never thought I'd say that before…_ Drew thought to himself as he followed May jabber on about the amount of people they had met while searching for the lead they had received on Max.

It was after that that she started to talk about the leads they had received, that he started to listen.

"so I was visiting my home when I found a not found outside my Dad's gym, it was addressed to me, so I opened it and read it, it said that Max was in Kalos, near Coumarine city, and if I wanted to find him than I needed to bring him Ash, only they referred to him as Ashton Ketchum, and they said they would trade, but I wasn't about to do that so here I am, in Kalos… wondering if I'll ever find my brother, maybe I will find ash though, he's always stuck where everything goes down, I think its bad luck."

With her story done, Drew found himself pushing through the bracken to find himself face to face with May. Not.

oOo

"Drew?"

"Dang it Ash, what are you doing here? Oh who am I kidding; May said you'd show up without even knowing it."

"That makes no sense Drew…"

"What I mean is, everything dangerous goes down around you." The people standing next to Ash looked at the newcomer as though he was crazy, and a hidden emotion flew behind Serena's eyes, "Is May here now?" she asked quietly, Drew looked at her in surprise, "And your name is…?" he muttered as though she was intruding. She took a step behind Ash, and didn't reply._ Arceus, if Ash doesn't know that she has a crush on him, than he is hopeless in this world… _Drew thought to himself. May suddenly made her appearance by pushing through the bracken behind Drew, "Hey Drew, who are you-" she froze when she saw Ash, "Talking. To…"

**A/N; so yea, I combined the first three chapters like I said I might, and I tried to make this chapter longer, I hope you like it because I need to go find a hot dish cloth to calm the carpel tunnel in my wrists. **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N; Hello again, I'm trying to type faster, which might mean shorter chapters, but hey, I'll be getting the story through with and finished right? Have you ever had a crazy art teacher? It's kind of like combining Crazy with absurd, then multiplying it by twenty. After that you add a short temper and meticulousness.**

**Still more though, because then you need to combine all of that with a short attention span, a weird sense of humor, and overall craziness. Yea that's what I've come to know as Art Class… honestly I think all art teachers are a little crazy, my first art teacher always ripped up my work, then laughed as she patted me on the shoulder. School is a weird experience. **

"Hey Drew who are you-" May froze when she saw Ash, "Talking. To…" ash smiled, "And the Princess of Hoenn arrives." Ash joked with his old friend, Drew hid a smile, and May, she wasn't as pleased with that nickname, "Don't call me that Ashton Satoshi Ketchum." Ash just laughed; he then grew a little serious,

"Looking for your brother?" he asked, taking the paper gently from Serena and handing it to May. May unfolded the paper and read it; she frowned and read it a few more times. It was then that the Treeco recognized her and ran forward to climb into her arms.

"Where did you?" Clement spoke up then, interrupting May midsentence, "Pikachu chased him and we caught up after a few minutes."

"Yea…" Bonny muttered, "_We _chased him." Clement sweat dropped. Ash watched the two siblings before talking to May, "you know those two remind me of you and Max." May gave a small laugh, before taking Ash aside, leaving poor Drew to deal with the Kalos-natives.

"You see Ash, he just disappeared, there was no ransom except…"

"Except what?"

"Well,"

"Spit it out May!"

"You."

"Me what?"

"You were the ransom. Someone might be after you."

Ash froze, confusion filled his eyes, before he asked, "So what do they want with Max?" May just shook her head, "I don't know, but it had to be something, after all, they transported him from Kanto to Kalos, and that's a far trip to hold someone hostage for." 

Ash nodded, "Let's keep this to ourselves, I don't want my friends to worry."

"Drew already knows, but ok." Ash gave a small smile and the two returned to stop an oral fight between Bonny and Drew.

oOo

The group had voted unanimously to help find Max, and so they had joined up with May and Drew, however, the fact arose, night was fast approaching, and there wasn't a Pokémon center on this side of the woods. They would have to camp in a forest that was most likely dangerous to them. Finding no other option, the group set up tents and hunkered down for the night.

oOo

The forest had to be empty now! The man thought to himself as he stalked towards the sequoia that towered over the rest of the forest. Slowly raising his hands, the man began his ritual. The spheres grew larger, as did the door. Soon the door was completely open and a small click could be heard.

Shivering from the cold of the night, the man dashed through the door, with it disappearing after he was through. He entered a staircase, and descended its steps, coming to a small landing. Entering through the only door on this landing, he came to a large control center, deep within the sequoia.

"Yonah, of Sector D, reporting."

Turning from the control video, a much taller man turned to Yonah,

"The position of our target?"

"Still hasn't arrived in Kalos, however, it may appear, that we have a new target."

"And who may that be?" the man, obviously Yonah's boss inquired. Yonah looked at the ground, "It appears our hostage has a few friends searching the forest for him, one of which is descended of the ancient Aura users."

"Do I have to pull this out of you one sentence at a time?"

"Alright, alright, he has a name we can cross reference with some of the evil organizations across the world."

"Are you going to give me that name?"

"Ashton. He goes by Ash, Ash Ketchum." Yonah's boss immediately began to type on the large super computer behind him, searching common search engines and pulling information from those sites.

Then he began the tedious access of the under web, it was not an easy place to reach, being illegal in most regions, it was beyond the search engines most people could access, but this man found his way easily.

Researching this trainer became most interesting after his access to the under web, were most organizations had their websites stored. Some hadn't been updated in a long time, but the information was still there, as if it had traveled through time to the moment he had need it.

Taking notes became more interesting as the information flowed out of the computer in a cascade of stalker-ish facts. Yonah stood there, not knowing what to do as the boss had forgotten to give him an order. So he spoke up, "Sir is there anything I can do?"

His boss did not answer, so he walked out of the room, intending to go even farther down, to the area were they kept prisoners deemed unsafe to the organizations goals. _That kid needs to answer some questions on his friends. _He exited the stairwell, and pressed his hand onto a pressure plate, he materialized a sphere of Aura on the pressure plate, and the door opened.

Walking past rows upon rows of empty cells, Yonah smiled, no one would think to go back this far into the dungeon-like space. That is until he came upon the last cell, to find it occupied by a ten year old. The kid looked up warily, not knowing what to make of this new visitor.

"Max, is it?" Yonah asked in mock curiousness, "I have a few questions to ask you, questions about your friends."

"Really?" Asked Max in a sort of fearful anger, all mixed in with a bit of sarcasm.

"You will learn to speak to adults with respect, but seeing I'm a little preoccupied there won't be a punishment just yet." Max, who had stood up when Yonah had arrived, took a step backwards, thankful for once that there were bars separating the two, and the man continued,

"You have traveled a lot for having recently turned ten, haven't you? You've seen a lot of things, been a lot of places. You've met plenty of people, but there's only one in particular that I want to know about."

Max took another step back, uncertainty and fear bright in his eyes, "And who's that?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of him. Yonah took a step forward; he was now standing directly in front of the bars, "I think you know him well, his name is Ash, Ketchum."

**A/N; HAHA I finally update, and I'm leaving you on a cliffhanger, I. Am. Evil. Not really, I'm just a bit coherent… **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N; Hey I'm back and it's been a week I think… *in the background* hey Gi-Li has it been a week? Stupid dog, never answers…. Anyway, I'm working through writer's block so cut me some slack right now. **

**oh and another thing, this one about my OC's name, Yonah, as I am still learning Cherokee, and my English spelling rules mix with Cherokee symbolism, and when the words are spelled with English letters, they do not follow English rules, on top of that there are multiple dialects, and multiple ways to say the same word, for instance, **

**Naming Yonah, it means bear, and bear is traditionally spelled, Yo-Na, and pronounced the same way. However if I wanted to name him bear in Cherokee, I could also have called him Yo-Nv, which instead of being pronounced (Yona {A sounds like the a in bark}) it is pronounced like Yonu (V sounds like the u in nut) **

**Even my Cherokee name could be different because of the animal I am nicknamed after. So if you want to clarify my knowledge on the name of my OC, search Yo-Na, do not add the H at the end, and if you were wondering, Gi-Li means dog. So hurrah, you've received your Cherokee lesson for today, on with the story. **

"Why do you want to know about him?" asked Max, thinking fast and deciding to pretend it didn't matter. Something flashed in Yonah's eyes; the man knew that the ten year old was putting on a show, "Don't pretend you never saw him do anything great. I know you have, all you need to do is tell me what."

"I don't know anything great about him, he was just a friend I traveled around with, and he's a great trainer, but nothing special." Yonah was reaching the end of his patience, one more try, "what about the Tree of Beginning?" Fear flashed through Max's eyes, and Yonah knew he had reached a memory. "Well?" When Max didn't answer, Yonah lost it, he raised his left hand and formed an Aura sphere, and "Tell me!" he yelled. Max, again, didn't answer.

"Tell me, NOW!" Yonah threw the sphere and it hit the wall, a few inches away from Max, who cringed but otherwise kept quiet, "Your bravery is beyond that of your age, perhaps you are following someone's lead, perhaps a friend?"

Max scowled, "Perhaps Ashton?" Max said nothing, "You know why you're here? You stumbled upon our operation in Kanto, our plan for the Tree of Beginning, for Aura Guardian Aron's revival. You stopped us; you desecrated our only chance to revive the Guardian, our only chance to be able to bend his will. And so you're here, where you can't get in our way."

Max shrugged, "Sounded fun at first." Yonah was about to retort, but his walkie-talkie beeped and he walked away to speak into it. He returned to the prisoner smiling, "Soon you may be able to catch up with some of your old friends, maybe even your sister; you know the one that defeated you?"

"You know, I only have one sister." Max retorted as Yonah walked away. the ten year old sighed and leaned against the wall, only to slide to the ground, letting his show end, he was exhausted, and on the verge of starving. "May, Ash," he whispered to himself, "You two had better be looking for me…"

He thought back to the message he had been able to sneak onto the last visitor he had, that guy, what was his name? TsuWa the name flung itself into Max's mind, and being that he hadn't been punished for the deed yet, meant the message could have been destroyed secretly, or it had been dropped somewhere, which was exactly what he wanted. At least then, someone could find it…

oOo

Ash woke up with the early morning rays of sunlight. But that wasn't the thing that had woken him up, what had woken him up was a dream, and Max was in it. He had felt like it was actually happening, Max had stumbled on something at the Tree of Beginning, and had been captured by that man so he wouldn't get in the way. and the only thing he had to debunk this dream from being reality was that it was a dream, a dream with no proof of being possible, yet.

Sighing, he sat up in his sleeping bag, only to find May sitting a few feet away from the campsite, hugging her knees, and staring into the distance.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked standing up and walking over to his friend. May seemed on the verge of tears, and hardly noticed her friend walk up to her, that being so, she nearly jumped out of her skin when he tapped her on the shoulder to snap her out of it.

"What are you doing up? everyone else is still asleep." Ash asked his old friend, who hugged her knees tighter, and didn't reply.

"Do you miss Max?" May nodded, but still didn't say anything. Ash sighed and looked around. all the other occupants of the campsite were still asleep, even Pikachu slept soundly at the foot of Ash's empty sleeping bag, and Clement snored loudly. He then, without a word, walked off to do… whatever it is Ash does, leaving May to sigh, and fall backwards to stare at the patches of blue sky peeking through the layers of canopy crowning the top of the forest in a blanket of shades of green.

Watching bits of clouds pass overhead, in and out of view, May must have laid there for at least an hour, she heard the others getting up and getting ready for the day, she heard, and smelled, Clement cooking a breakfast for the group, she even heard Bonny playing with Pikachu, but she didn't hear any sign of Ash. At last getting up from her spot on the grass, she walked over to the campsite, readying herself for the parts of a social life along the way.

Clement looked up as she sat down at the folding table, next to Serena,

"Have you seen Ash?" Clement asked May, without looking over; he was busy with the stove.

"I saw him about an hour ago…" May said, her voice almost a whisper, it was clear that Max's disappearance was getting to her, Drew looked over from where he was sitting, on a rock, about five feet away from the table. frowning he stood up,

"May, can I talk to you for a minute." without a word, May stood up and followed Drew away from the campsite, and out of earshot.

"May. are you ok?" Drew asked, as he had seen her change in demeanor, Max had disappeared a while ago, and now it was finally getting to her. She shrugged,

"I guess, I just want Max to be okay…"

Drew sighed, "May, the best way you can help Max now, is to stop moping around and keep looking." May looked at the ground,

"It's just when I got that note, it scared me, and I was just standing there, awestruck,

I didn't know what to do, call for help? who do I call? Officer Jenny? The International Police? what do I tell them? that they wanted to trade my brother for my friend? how would I tell Ash? How would I tell my parents? What would I do if they were lying about where Max was?"

Drew stood quietly, listening to May's fears, "And how many fears have been quelled?"

May stood there thinking for a moment, before answering, "I know Max is where they said he'd be, I managed to tell Ash without him flipping out, My parents know, that's why we're here, Officer Jenny contacted the international police, that's why they have more undercover officers in Kalos right now… But I still can't believe they want Ash, what for, I mean he's a great trainer, but there's only two other reasons anyone would want to get him out of the way." May stopped, and Drew tried to get her to continue, it was obvious she needed to talk about it,

"and those are?"

"You know the first one; he's the chosen one of a lot of prophecies, even more than we probably know about. but the second one…" unknown to the duo, Yonah sat hidden among the bushes, a tape recorder in his hand, as he was recording the conversation between the two teens.

"Drew, if he wanted to, he could learn to use Aura."

Drew cocked his head, "Aura? What's that?" May sighed,

"Aura, it's kind of like your soul, it's in everyone, some Pokémon can learn to use it in moves like Aura Sphere, but a long time ago it was not uncommon to see humans who could do the same thing. Back then there were Aura guardians, and Aura users, ones who did not wish to learn to fight with Aura, both able to use Aura respectably, but at one point, there came a third group of Aura users, this third group clashed with the other two groups.

In Kanto, at the Tree of Beginning, a war broke out, Pokémon and humans alike were on their way to fight, and they would go as far as death to prove themselves. But there was one Aura guardian who decided to stop it all, he went to the tree of beginning, of which was dying because of the hatred down below it. he sacrificed his Aura in order to save the tree, and the lives of everyone in the war.

That Aura user died because of his sacrifice, but he did succeed in saving the lives of the tree, and everyone below. Ash has almost a complete match of Aura to that once great Aura user, his name was Aaron, and there was never another Aura guardian as strong as him recorded. over time, the Aura users seized to be as common, and the time of Aura guardians diminished. Now there's only a handful of people in the entire world who can even unlock the use of Aura. Ash is one of them."

Drew stood, shocked by May's story, "So naturally someone would want to use him, if they knew. Right?" He asked trying to make sense of the situation, May nodded, "Yep…"

**A/N; so that is it for this chapter, I'm so excited to watch the new Pokémon movie on CN today! see you all later.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N; Hey guess who got Diancie! There's a giveaway at GameStop! OMG I'm so happy! I'm completely fangirling over here, since I have both X and Y I got two! AHHHHHHHHHHH!**

Drew sighed, what had he gotten himself into? This couldn't end well, could it? May seemed unsure if it was a good idea to tell him about this secret, but it was too late to go back. Without a word, just a nod, the two made their way back to camp.

o0o

Ash sat cross-legged, and out of earshot of his friends. He was trying to use Aura. The way he had used it to track down the kidnapped Riolu. If he could just sense Max than everything would be so much easier; problem was, so far it wasn't working.

"Come on!" he yelled in frustration, happy he was out of earshot of his friends, but he wasn't out of earshot from everyone in the forest, there was a small group watching him from the shadows, waiting for a signal. When the signal was given they fanned out, surrounding the young trainer. Ash didn't notice them, proving his failure to use his Aura voluntarily.

Suddenly a voice sounded from the darkness surrounding Ash, "I see; having trouble with Aura use are we? And no Pokémon either, what an advantage, on our part. I'll bet you're trying to find your friend? Am I correct?" the voice was taunting him, Ash stood up, clenching his hands into fists in the process; but the taunting continued,

"Does it bother you that he's missing? Does it scare you? Anger you? I pity you, Ashton, I can only imagine, and yet, her you are going through it, and because of us." Ash spun around as he heard the voice behind him, along with slow even footsteps.

"We finally meet, Ashton," the man was interrupted by Ash, "My name is Ash, and what do you want?" Ash tried to keep his voice low and even as he took a step away from the man's advances. He turned around to run, but ran into a wall of three people blocking his escape.

o0o

Ash stood surrounded by the group of people the man standing in front took another step forward and begun an introduction,

"We are the dark leaf, an international group whose sole purpose is to collect high Aura products, from the largest time flower to the oldest, we even hunt down people, but hey rarely survive, after all, it's hard to when your Aura has been stolen. I'm afraid we don't find many human specimens in the first place, they are all but gone."

Ash looked at the group clad in green tunics (Yes, I have been playing way too much Zelda lately… cut me some slack okay?) a dark shadow-like printing of a leaf on their chests, along with ribbons and pins of shades of green, white, and black, all mixed in different ways. They also wore black jeans adorned with decorations of a dark green vine going up the side of the left pant-leg.

"Well," Ash said to the man that had been speaking, his tunic seemed inverse to the others, being black with a green leaf design, "Are you going to tell me who _you_ are?" the man laughed, an evil, heart-wrenching laugh,

"We've been watching you, how you evaded us for so long, we may never know, all the way from Iron Island, however, we will not let you escape this time." Ash looked confused by these words, "I haven't been running from anyone, who _are _you?" the man laughed the same jarring laugh,

"My name? I'd rather not tell you, but seeing your distress, I guess I must." Ash scowled at this, "My name is Yonah."

o0o

Ash stood there, where had he heard that name before? It had to have been somewhere. _The news! It was on the news back in Kanto, which means… _He gasped, "Yes, in kanto I hunted down eleven people, only one got away. Why so many Aura users were in one region, I will never know. I may have failed on the eleventh, but he is still a target, just as you are as well. Funny thing is, you two are not targets to drain the Aura, just to get it out of the way."

Ash just stared, he had nothing to say, it was all so new to him. Yonah continued, "I believe the one that got away was a friend of yours, his name escapes me though, could you refresh my memory for me?" Ash just stared daggers at Yonah, the man gave a look of fake remembrance, "Oh yes, his name was Tracey, how could I have forgotten that?

You see Ashton, Tracey is coming to Kalos today. He is supposed to give some information from Professor Oak to that annoying little kid's sister. When he arrives, he will contact that kid's sister via pokenav." Ash started looking for a way to make his escape, but it was futile, he was surrounded by six or seven Dark Leaf members.

"Getting a little worried Ashton? I thought you wanted to see your friend?"

o0o

"Bonny, can you go find Ash? Breakfast is ready, and he's been gone almost an hour." Clement was putting breakfast on the table. And as Ash still hadn't come back from wherever he was, Pikachu had opted to sit on May's head.

"Okay!" Bonny yelled, and ran off into the forest surrounding the clearing. She was following Ash's footsteps when she heard voices, "Getting a little worried Ashton? I thought you wanted to see your friend?" she started running towards the sound and stopped behind a few bushes; she was out of sight of the strange people, but Ash saw her almost immediately.

_Great…_ Ash thought to himself as he noticed Bonny, Hiding behind the bushes, behind Yonah's back. _Don't move Bonny!_ He pleaded in his mind as he forced himself to look into Yonah's dark eyes. Yonah laughed,

"Now who do I sense hiding in the bushes back there," he turned around and continued, "come out girl." Ash looked at the ground, and then watched Bonny come out of the Bushes slowly, Dedenne in her bag hiding.

"Come here girl, I understand by Ashton's reaction that you are a friend of his." Bonny drew in her breath, and ran to Ash, who gave her a nod to say everything would be okay.

**A/N; and that's it for this chapter, sorry for the cliffhanger, but hey, when you get mad at me I will not deny it, IT'S ALL MY FAULT! Evil laugh. See ya later!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N; I'm back, woo ho! But I've got nothing to say except this, on with the story. Although I will admit, I'm not very happy with the way this chapter turned out. **

Ash took a step forward, to stand in front of Bonny. His eyes showed a slight fear that until that point had been hidden. "Alright, what do you want?" he asked, as though acknowledging his defeat. However, Yonah just laughed, "What do I want?" he paused for a sense of drama, "Come with us quietly, I see that you don't want any harm to come to your friend-" Yonah was immediately cut off by Bonny, who stormed out from behind of Ash and yelled "when my brother finds you-"

Yonah just laughed, and Ash gently grabbed Bonny's shoulder and pulled her back away from Yonah who stated, "When? No the correct word is, if." Then turned and walked over to another of the group. He raised his hand, and the entire Dark leaf group began to create a sort of prison. It was created of Aura, and you couldn't see or hear anything from outside of the almost completely dark crate. Both Ash and Bonny could stand up inside the box, but it was only about four or five feet in length and width.

It was quiet inside the box, they couldn't hear anything in the outside world, and everyone outside of the box couldn't hear anything inside the box. They couldn't see anything outside of the box either, and vice versa.

Completely isolated, the two sat on the ground of Aura, feeling a bit unsettled by the rocking of the box, as it was becoming more and more clear that the box was floating through the air. Finally Ash broke the silence, "Hey Bonny, Does Clement know you were looking for me?" he looked at the form of an eight year old girl hugging her knees,

"Yea…" was the only answer he received. But that was all he needed, "Well by now, they probably have no idea where we are…" Bonny had finally elaborated on her original "yea", but it wasn't an elaboration he wanted to hear.

"Great…" he muttered, and started looking for a way to escape, _Aura can break Aura!_ That thought jammed itself into his mind and he stood up. Only to lose his balance against the rocking of the crate, it felt like he was in a boat. He fell backwards hitting his head on the side of the box. And boy did it hurt. The Aura felt like a steel barrier. _Well there goes that idea… _

He gave up on trying to find an escape, and sat cross-legged, his arms folded across his chest; staring at the walls of the box, and watching Bonny try to coax Dedenne out of her purse.

o0o

Ten minutes went by. Then fifteen, then twenty. Neither Bonny, nor Ash came back to the clearing. "Where is she!?" Clement almost yelled in his frustration, "I sent her almost a half an hour ago!" He was pacing back in forth in worry. Serena was standing in front of the folding table next to May and Drew, watching Clement pace.

"Maybe she's still looking for Ash?" Serena suggested, trying to calm down the overprotective sibling **(Seriously, have you ever realized how over protective he can be, it's kind of funny when you realize it, it's also so subtle that almost no one realizes it!) **but it didn't work very well in calming Clements fears, "NO, she would have come back by now!" Clement muttered, all the while continuing his pace, Serena tried again, "Well, we could go look for her, she's probably just walking around somewhere looking for Ash-" Serena was then cut off by May, "Hey wait where is Ash?" there was no answer, until Drew spoke up,

"He'll be fine; I've helped him out of a tough time before." May looked at him in confusion, causing Drew to explain, "At your final contest in Hoen, for your last ribbon, Team rocket tried to get you to lose, remember?" May nodded, and Drew continued, "They tricked Max, Brock, and Ash into a trap, I don't know what team rocket was going to do with them, but I helped them get away, Ash tried to tell you, but you were too preoccupied."

May looked utterly surprised, but made no further comment. Instead it was Drew who spoke up, "You three should go look for them, meet back here, and I'll have packed everything up by then."

"I'll go with May!" Serena yelled, grabbed mays arm, and the two ran off to go look. Only problem was, they went in the complete opposite direction. Clement and Drew just watched, completely dumbfounded, Drew Sighed, "They'll figure it out, you should get looking in the right direction." With that Drew turned and started to fold and put away the table and its respective chairs.

Clement turned and walked into the forest, going the direction Bonny had gone in. Drew meanwhile was just happy for some peace and quiet, too bad it was plaqued by worry for Max, and noe Ash and Bonny.

**A/N; thankyou for reading, goodbye. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N; OK, OK I'm SO SORRY! I HAVENT UPDATED IN SO LONG! I'm SO SORRY! ESPECISLY WHEN MY ONLY EXCUSSE IS…. Minecraft…. HEY! It's sooooooo addicting!**

Clement pushed his way through the bushes, searching for his sister and his friend; but to no avail, they seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth. He was also confused, Drew wasn't someone he took to be a talker, he seemed quiet, and set in his ways; not one to normally take charge. Then again, Clement had literally just met the guy; he could have easily underestimated the coordinator.

He exhaled deeply, how many friends had Ash made in his travels? He knew that the name Ash was just a nickname for the name Ashton (Funny thing is I have an Ashton in one of my classes, and he hates being called Ash) but other than that, he couldn't even begin to guess about his friends past, he only seemed to talk about it when asked. Clement was shaken from his reverie when he heard someone or something move in the bushes behind him, "Bonny?" he asked into the oblivion, hopefully, to nervous to walk towards the sound.

When there was no answer from his little sister, he changed the question, "Ash? Is that you?" it was then that the movement started again, and a voice spoke out from the underbrush, "Who are you? How do you know Ash?"

An eighteen year old in a dark green t-shirt and dark jeans walked from the underbrush. His Green-black hair looked to be in large dread locks, with a Black sweat band hiding under most of it. His backpack wasn't zipped all the way for the bunches of pencils poking out of the bottom end. His Black tennis shoes were well worn with the felt covering being frayed in some places so you could see the tough inside layer. He had a pokenav in his right hand and was still pushing aside some of the underbrush with his left.

Clement just stood there, surprised and didn't utter a word. The teen stood there a moment before growing a bit impatient, "Well?" Clement jumped, "W-Well I-I'm Clement, and I'm looking for my sister and friend." He stated, and the teen nodded, "I'm also looking for some people, May, and Drew, do you know them?" Clement grew exited then, and exclaimed, "Yes I do actually; we've been traveling with them! I can take you back to camp, if you want?"

The teen nodded and followed Clement back towards the campsite, they walked out of the bushes and Clement gave a surprised, "Huh?"

Drew had packed everything, and nothing was left behind, all packed away into their respective bags. He had cleaned everything in record time, having been given about an hour before Clement unexpectedly brought the new visitor. The coordinator was sitting on a rock flipping through the entries on his pokedex; he had had it updated before getting on the plane to Kalos with May. He looked up when he heard the footsteps though, and upon seeing the person standing behind Clement, showed no hint of recognition, and looked at the newcomer in confusion.

The unnamed teen said nothing, but Drew could see the obvious fact that the guy was really introverted, or shy. Maybe a bit of both, but before Clement or Drew could speak; a crash was heard, along with the frantic rustling of brambles and trees, not to mention the snapping of twigs, and the rustling of bushes, but soon words joined the noise, "I told you we went the wrong way! But no, you had to go this way, and now we just wasted an entire hour searching in the wrong place!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but I thought it was the right way!"

"Really!?" the two girls burst from the bushes, arguing over whose fault it was that they had gone the wrong way, but you could see a sort of glint in their eyes, one that showed an old friendship, that had just been found again. Suddenly May noticed that there were more people in the clearing than normal, and looked at the newcomer, in complete surprise she half yelled, "Tracey?"

**A/N; yea… short chapter… hey, review and I might be motivated to work through both carpel tunnel and writers block! (I'm not kidding; all your reviews mean so much to me!)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N; so a few people Pm me sometimes thinking I'm one of their friends from school so I want to clear a few things up. My name IS NOT any of the following**

**Mason Olivia Alisa Collin Alexis Emily Marylyn Colby OR Taylor**

**So please stop. And also apparently I have been spelling Bonnie's name incorrectly, for that I'm sorry. I've also been told that I did in fact put down the wrong Serena. **

Ash and Bonnie had been separated. For how long, Ash did not know, he also did not know if she was okay. And Clement would kill him personally if she wasn't… a wall of aura had sprung between him and Bonnie. Separating them from each other and crating them in their own separate prisons. A few minutes later the Aura around him dissolved and he found himself falling three or four feet to a hard rock floor.

He hit the ground hard and after a few seconds, he sat up. He was in a dark room. The room was dimly lit by a small light somewhere high above his head. In front of him was a series of screens, all moving separately from each other. The room was fairly bare other than that, but what all the space was for, he did not know. There were only three or four people, other than him, and they all seemed busy with the computer, that is, until one turned around.

"So the Aura finally finished disintegrating?" he asked in mock happiness. Ash frowned, and curling his hands into fists he stood up. "Where's Bonnie?" was the first thing he asked, and the man's readily answered, "Are you in the place to be asking the questions here?" Ash angrily watched the man walk forward, towards him. The person was tall, and with a jolt, Ash realized that he was the leader of these people, the Dark Leaf. **(You know, the people born of my excessive Zelda playing.)**

The man stopped in front of him, and at around six feet, he towered above the teen. Ash took a step back. The man looked down towards the kid, looking smugly at his latest capture. Ash looked up into the man's unnerving eyes, trying to hide his own fear as it tried to force its way into the open. Angrily Ash asked again, "Were, is, Bonnie?" his tone was that of ice as he kept his eye contact with the intimidating human in front of him.

The man laughed, "I guess it would be fair to tell you…." The man trailed off, watching the teen in front of him for any sign of emotion, and his pause was paid off. Ash looked up at him showing faint surprise, and the man continued, "However, have you ever known anyone to be fair." Ash frowned, what kind of world did this guy live in? Sure there were a lot of people like team rocket, but there were a lot of fair people on the planet. At least the one he lived in.

So this guy just wanted to get a rise out of him, the guy reminded him of the other truly evil people he had met before. Well with one coming to mind immediately, Giovani of team Rocket. Maybe the two knew of each other. Either way Ash was hit with true surprise when the man seemed to laugh, "But, that girl is of no need to us, we will take her to a Pokémon center, far from here, as dropping her off at one close by would tip authorities off. However, do not expect any more than that from us."

With that the man did not speak again, instead beckoning Yonah over to escort the trainer to what was referred to as the dungeon area. Many floors below that room, and many minutes later, Yonah, with a firm grip on Ash's left arm, led the teenager through a dark and shadowy ominous floor. Boxes were piled everywhere, and you could make out bars of various empty cells. Ash had not seen Bonnie at all since earlier that day, in the morning he presumed. Soon Yonah had reached the end of the floor, were a single large cell stood in the shadows, you could hardly see anything inside it. You couldn't see anything around the two anyway, as there was very little light; it was almost pitch black in that corner of the hideout.

Yonah took out a key and opened the door to the cell, _Locked? _Ash thought to himself, them one thought hit him like a freight train, _someone else is here!_ When the door opened, Yonah threw Ash down onto the ground inside, earning a resounding yelp from the young teen. Smiling, Yonah closed and locked the door, then turned around, presumably leaving. A few minutes later, the only light on that floor outside of an office like space, Ash had seen as he passed by, went out, leaving him in pitch black. It was then that he heard a voice,

"Pretty smart of you wasn't it?" Ash whirled around, he recognized the voice, but couldn't place it, and the voice continued, "And, no, I'm not talking about this," Ash saw Max step out of the shadows, "Why in the name of Arceus did you jump off of a tower?" Ash stood frozen, "Max?" he asked, his friend had changed so much, then going on a journey with your own Pokémon could do that to a person right? Max's glasses were still present as ever, underneath his slightly longer hair that covered his ears, and reached to an inch above his shoulders.

However, it was just as stringy as ever, his clothing consisted of a Dark green t-shirt, and brown pants. He still looked small for his age though, as though he was a lot younger than he truly was, but there was also a look in his eyes that Ash had hoped to never see on one of his friends' faces, fear.

**Here's a good place to stop, sorry about starting on a names note, but seriously, don't PM me about my name, it actually happens a lot. Please review if you like the story! Have fun on your computer since odds are you're going to be on it all day. **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N; So it comes to mind that Ash can't escape and he didn't learn about Aura. **

**I'm here to tell you that…. DUDE anyone here ever watch the tree of beginning movie, you know, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew? Has no one watched the DP series? He doesn't need to learn about Aura, because he already knows about it! In fact if you watch the movie I mentioned in the sentence of the latter, then you would realize that Ash already knows of the appalling strength of the Aura of him! And no I do not have a plan for this story, in case you were wondering****. Oh yea I didn't really cover this very well, let me explain: Serena was born in Hoenn, she moved to Kanto with her family. Her parents divorced and she and her mom moved to Kalos. That is my take on her life, just go with it…. Please?**

"Looks like they found you…" Max stated simply, sitting down in the process, leaving Ash to watch his friend in confusion, "Found me?" he asked, sitting down in front of his friend, "What do you mean by that?" Max sighed, "I don't really know, but they were looking for you because…." The ten year old thought for a moment, "Reasons…"

"Reasons?" Ash asked, his confusion in no way lifting, "Why are you even here?" Max looked towards the entrance to the floor, making sure there was no light to be seen, before speaking, "I was on a journey with some of my old school friends from Hoenn, we were in Kanto, at the tree of beginning, well not really… we were at the castle it was the time of year for the celebration of Sir Aaron again, and I managed to get my friends to meet Lady Ren." Ash nodded, listening to his friend's story,

"She was really worried about something, but tried to hide it around us, instead asking about you May and Brock. When my friends left though, she told me everything. There were some strange people that left for the tree. She then showed me all the ancient crystals…" Max trailed off, looking at Ash in the darkness, before continuing,

"They were all glowing, really bright, like giant searchlights… she told me about how they wanted to bring back sir Aaron."

"But Sir Aaron's dead! Isn't he?" Ash asked, and Max sighed, "To even get you to understand, I would have to explain suspended animation to you…"

"Suspended anima-what-now?"

"Exactly… anyways I told her I would follow them, and she tried to get me not to go…. But her grandma persuaded her or something and I left. I left a note for my friends with Nurse Joy, and then left for the tree; you remember how Mew told the tree that we weren't a threat?"

Ash nodded and Max continued, "Well the tree remembered, and I ran as fast as I Could to the heart…."

**(At this point I'm leaving them to backtrack to that day; I hate dialogue like this….)**

Max ran through the tree anxious to get to the heart as quickly as he could. Out of breath, he burst into the chamber of the Tree's heart, and froze upon what he saw. No one had noticed him yet, but there were six or seven people in the cave. They wore Dark Leaf uniforms and had Aura swirling around their hands; the shape of Sir Aaron was beginning to take physical form, but was still incredibly wispy. Thinking fast, Max threw a poke ball into the air and yelled, "Aura sphere!" a young Lucario materialized and did his bidding.

Sir Aaron became completely wispy again before looking in Max's direction and disappearing. Max stood dumbfounded at what had just happened. The men, one being Yonah turned around, Yonah obviously being the leader of the group at that moment in time, yelled, "What does this little kid think he's doing in _Our_ tree?" Max took a step back. The men advanced, and Max turned and ran.

He made it only twenty feet, before an arm reached out and grabbed him, "Well done Walelu, you made a nice capture, now let's go; before we raise suspicion from the tree." Max's story ended with that, leaving Ash even more confused than before, and Max sighed, "Later they gave subtle clues, like yelling at me in anger when they talked, they were using Aura to bring sir Aaron out of suspended animation, and control his very will."

Surprisingly, Ash nodded in understanding **(Yea, he is a little smarter than you think) **"So why have they been searching for me? Why do they think I've been running since I was in Sinnoh?" Max shrugged, "When were you in Sinnoh?" Ash sighed, "Around the time your sister was there…"

"Oh. When you were twelve? These people don't give up do they?"

"But I wasn't running! I didn't even know these people existed until today!"

"Great…"

**A/N; ok I'm done for now, off to go study for next week's exams, see ya! and Walelu means hummingbird**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N; Yes I gave Max a Lucario, because I still like my stories to be forgotten by the characters in the end, you know, I want them to be able to return to the show without any substantial differences caused by me, Max, well I'm guessing on him. He said he wanted a Treeco, so I gave him a Treeco. Now on with the story. And I wanted a Lucario for the Aura theme of the story. **

"Oh I can't stand you sometimes!"

"Really? I'm sooo surprised!"

"Well you…. You!"

Drew flipped his hair as May fumed, meanwhile Clement and Serena watched in surprise and shock. Clement stepped forward, in between the fighting coordinators, "Hey, come on; calm down. Were almost out of the forest." Serena stepped forward as well, and crossed her arms, "Come on, let's just get to the Pokémon center…" May and Drew looked at each other for a moment, before Drew broke contact and looked at the ground, leaving May to mutter, "Ok."

Around an hour of uneasy silence later, the group broke from the forest to a small town, with a Pokémon center on the edge. It was sitting peacefully on the outskirts, facing the road, its red roof a telltale giveaway to the building's use. It was the then that the group broke into a run, bursting into the Pokémon center faster than Clement had ever gone in his entire life.

"Guys…." Clement puffed, "Wait up!"

o0o

"So have you seen her?" Clement asked the Nurse behind the counter, they had given Nurse Joy a picture of Bonnie, and now the nurse was going to spread the word to the other Pokémon centers,

"No, but I wish I had. I'll go check with my cousin and daughter in law." Clement nodded, and the nurse went into a backroom, leaving the four kids to their own desires in the proses. "Well, that could have gone better…" Serena tried to crack the stone hard air the group was currently enveloped in, it didn't work. So instead, she walked away from the dark atmosphere, to the computer phone. She booted up the computer, and searched the internet for… information… also known as she took out her headphones and watched TV for a few hours, while the May and Drew checked the group into a room, while Clement went around asking people if they had seen Ash, or Bonnie.

Soon she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning she met May who had come to get her,

"So…" May asked, in an attempt to make conversation, "how long have you been on a journey?" Serena, who was putting her headphones away, thought for a moment, before answering, "oh, maybe a few months…" may laughed a little, "And?" the two were now walking to the room that they would be staying in for the night, Serena looked at her friend in confusion, "And, What?" May sighed in exasperation, "Have you had fun? Have you been to a lot of places? Have you met, Team Rocket?"

Serena laughed, "Who hasn't met them?" May giggled, "Yea, good point, they've been after Ash's Pikachu for so long I don't think anyone but him knows why…" Serena continued, "Well, I guess it's been fun, watching Ash win gym battles has been amazing, but I finally think I know what I want to do with my life, and soon we are going to this Skidoo farm, where my mom used to go all the time. She might be there, I'm planning on asking her permission to be a performer next time I see her."

"A performer?"

"Yea, it's kind of like a coordinator, only no battling, it's only to show off, you know perform."

"Sounds fun, I might try one of those someday."

"And maybe I'll try a contest one day."

o0o

"Great…" Max muttered, "We've gotten nowhere through this conversation." He leaned back against the wall, and took off his glasses to clean them. Ash just watched his friend, with slight understanding of what was going on. A few minutes later a light turned on, far away, near the entrance, it was then that Max's cocky attitude grew serious, "Listen Ash, I know you don't like to speak civilly to these kind of people, and that you question them in every way possible, but please, don't do anything that will make them mad."

"Why?" Ash asked, but the only answer he received was, "Trust me." The lights Ash hadn't even realized were there turned on throughout the floor, and Yonah walked up to the bars separating the two from the rest of the world.

"As you probably have heard, my name is Yonah, and I am the Mighty Bear, one of the top people of the Dark leaf."

Ash was about to make a smart remark, but Max placed a hand on his shoulder in warning, so instead he asked, "Bear?" Yonah sighed, "You young children and old people alike, you have no idea of your true roots." Ash and Max looked at each other in confusion, as Yonah had never spoken to Max, or Ash, in this way before.

"Are you going to tell us?" Ash asked angrily in spite of himself, and Yonah looked at him sharply, "you will mind those who speak to you, young Aura user." Ash looked at the man in confusion, "Aura user?" he repeated, looking at his captor as though the man was crazy.

Yonah stared at the teen in front of him, "He never told you… _They_ never told you!" Ash took a step back away from the Dark Leaf Hunter, and with his voice barely above a whisper asked, " who?"

Yonah, of which was growing angrier by the second, yelled, "Your father! Your Grandfather! How dare your Grandfather not carry on the tradition of the Aura users! How dare your father not tell you of your Grandfather's legacy!" Ash met Yonah's anger with his own, "what's it to you, my dad wasn't even around to raise me! And my grandfather died before I was born!" Yonah stood aghast, and his anger quieted,

"Giovanni never raised his own kid huh? Must have been the doing of his mother's side of the family…" with that he turned and left, offering no explanation for his words. Max looked at Ash wondering about his reaction to Yonah's revelation.

Ash, who was now a foot behind him **(Because of the whole step backwards thing)** stood staring in the place where Yonah had been. Not saying a word, he seemed lost in the world of his thoughts. Max was almost afraid to say, "Uhh, Ash?" Ash didn't look away from the spot but, he did start to speak,

"From the moment I started my journey, Team Rocket has always attacked me for my Pikachu, when I was in my own Father's Gym, he wasn't there…Twice! And back in Unova, he tried to take over, but my friends and I tried to stop him, he took me and Pikachu with a Pokémon named Meloetta and rose a city from the ocean… he attacked us, we attacked him… I attacked him, and I never knew it…"

Max just watched his friend, not knowing what to say.

o0o

Bonnie felt herself being thrown out of the truck. It was dark outside, with the stars shining brightly above her. The truck drove away, and she stood up and brushed herself off, afterwards she looked in her pouch to find Dedenne sleeping peacefully, without any knowledge of the situation the two were in.

Looking around, she spotted a Pokémon center, she could get ahold of her brother and Serena there, maybe Nurse Joy would help…

She began to run towards the building. And she rushed through the doors just as the nurse was about to turn out the lights for the night, "Oh, hello. I'm sorry to tell you, but you're late for curfew. Also are you alone?" Bonny ran to the nurse, "I need to find my brother and my friends! Can you tell me where I am?"

**(Ok I set the main part of the story in the mountains outside of Shalour city, but were Bonnie is right now is obviously no very close to Shalour) **

"You're in Geosenge town. May I ask your name?" Bonnie nodded and answered, "My name's Bonnie, I'm from Lumiose city." With that the nurse turned and walked to her computer phone. After sitting down she motioned for Bonnie to come over to her. Bonnie watched the Nurse attempt at a call, soon another nurse answered, "Hello, this is the Pokémon center in Shalour city, how may we be of assistance to you?"

"Hi cuz, remember me from around three hours ago?" the other Joy laughed

"So why are you calling us so late, is there an emergency?"

"No, quite the opposite, in fact, the little girl you said was missing, just showed up, would you mind getting her brother and friends?"

"Sure, but I'm going to have to wake them up first, can you hold for a few minutes?"

"Sure." The nurse on Bonnie's side of the line answered, and the other nurse simply walked away from the computer, leaving it running. A few minutes later Serena showed up, still fully clothed as she had been training her Pokémon for a performance.

(Ok, ok, I know the English dub hasn't gotten that far but as Citron would say 'Please bear with me')

"Bonnie, are you ok?" she asked through the phone, "Bonnie answered, "Yea, I'm fine, but where's Clement?"

"He's still waking up, but he'll get here in a minute. Where are you?"

"Geosenge Town." Was Bonnie's short reply as Clement burst onto the screen, "Bonnie? Bonnie! Are you ok!?" he yelled, "Yea, I'm fine." Bonnie said, with Dedenne chiming in as it sat on her head. Serena was looking around in the background behind Bonnie, "Bonnie, Where's Ash?"

**A/N That's a good place to stop; now I want to tell you all a story of College, Christmas, and alcohol. That's the end of this chapter, and if you don't want to hear of this encounter, good bye. Go away. **

**So anyone who reads my stuff can tell I'm really withdrawn, and afraid of people's opinions, and I'm also not old enough to drink. But I do have a skype. No I will not tell you what it is, don't ask. I use it to play video games with my friends, so we don't get all laggy. **

**So I made a mistake, I have a friend named Bella, and I didn't know if she had a skype, so when a person with the name of Bella in her username friended me, I thought it was my friend, but I also remembered that she didn't know if I had a skype either, so I kept my information give out to a minimum. She kept trying to get info out of me with questions like "how's your break". And telling me things like "I'm on break from college" and talking about drinking. **

**I was fine with her saying stuff like that because of family problems when I was younger, but I was careful not to give her any information, but what made me a bit scared was that she kept trying in various ways to get me to relent to a video chat. But I cut it off when she asked If I, a person she already knows am a minor (From the whole drinking question…) wanted to send dirty Pix. **

**I don't even get to the whole extent what a dirty picture even is! I just know if it's a questionable picture DELETE IT. So I blocked her. I'm still a little freaked out about it, should I tell my parents? Sorry for burdening you all who didn't take heed of my notice about my goings into a full story here, but I just had to ask, it's not like I know many people in real life who I can ask the question… thanks for reading, please review with suggestions for the story, later. **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N; so guess what… guess… come on guess… I FORGOT TO WRITE ABOUT TRACEY… Yea… let's just say that since the Orange Islands, he had become a lot more accepting of everything, and watches everyone's reactions, while trying to piece together what is happening behind the scenes, after all, I'm weird, and want Tracey to secretly know how to use Aura, but that will not come into the story until much later… I think… on with the story with characters of which I do not own. And apparently forget about a lot…**

The Pokémon center nurse agreed with Clement to drive his little sister from one center to another, claiming that it would be good to see her cousin in person after so long, but as it was too late to leave in the middle of the night, she would take Bonnie to Shalour the in the morning the next day.

So with that the communication between the two Pokémon centers abruptly ended, and the nurse of Geosenge helped Bonnie to sleep. Meanwhile in Shalour, Clement and Serena returned to May Drew and Tracey, who sat waiting for them to return.

"Is Bonnie okay?" May asked as Drew sat with his arms crossed; Tracey sat on the ground, drawing May's Skitty. They all stopped what they were doing so that they could listen to Clement as he told the story of the phone conversation the two had had with Bonnie. Clement finished the story with, "I'm so glad I don't have to tell my parents about this!" Serena laughed as Drew frowned.

0o0

Max was asleep, and that was a good thing, Ash supposed. The kid looked like he hadn't slept in days. Ash was tired as well, but he decided to let Max sleep in peace, and he didn't feel safe without at least one of them awake at all times; not that he would ever tell Max that. The ten year old had enough to worry about, and Max would wake up soon anyway, back in Hoenn and even Kanto, Max was always the first one to at least open his eyes when something happened. There still were a few things that went unnoticed by the youngest of the group, but not many.

As Ash had predicted, Max woke up after an hour of peaceful sleep, and a half hour of restless nightmares Ash had been too afraid to wake him up from. There wasn't much to talk about; the mood was too dark to catch up on happy moments at the time. No one came down to that floor, and Max's explanation for this was that The Dark Leaf already had what they wanted from the two, Anyone they thought to be suspicious was already in their custody, they had labeled Bonnie as too young to understand, and didn't know that both Ash and Max had been traveling with friends at the time.

That was the Dark Leaf's mistake though, as around fourteen miles away, five teenagers were awaiting the arrival of Clement's little sister and the nurse Joy from Geosenge town. It was ten o'clock in the morning when Bonnie arrived, having been taken to Shalour by Nurse Joy, just as promised. Clement ran over to Bonnie, before she was even out of the car. Before she knew what was happening, Bonnie was encased in a tight hug from her older brother.

"Clement! You're squishing me!"

"I don't really care!" was Clement's answer, and a few seconds later he released Bonnie from the embrace.

Things moved fairly quickly through Bonnie's perspective after that, as the two Joys agreed to let the kids go out into the mountains (Yes there are mountains by Geosenge and Shalour, if you didn't know that than that's fine.) but the Joys agreed on only one condition; they would notify the police, most likely getting the international police involved, not that it mattered to any of them.

A few hours later the group found themselves waving goodbye to the two nurses as they walked back into the forests, this time on a trail to the mountains. The sun had risen high above the clouds when the group found themselves in a large valley not very far into the mountain range. Bonnie was pulling Tracey by the jacket he had put on. Tracey, at that point in time, was trying to draw every Pokémon he saw, and bonnie was, for some inconspicuous reason, annoyed by this.

Serena was searching the scenery on her map, for what, none of them actually knew. Drew was holding onto May's green and red backpack handle, much to her annoyance, as he read a book and walked at the same time (I just see him as the reading type). Clement was arguing with Bonnie over the fact of her not leaving Tracey alone, said person finally muttering "Ok, Ok…" in an exasperated voice, and relenting, putting away his sketch book, and pencils.

A little while after that, a thud, along with a pained yelp was heard, along with a sarcastic, "Really?" From May. Drew, who had been reading instead of watching what was under his feet, had tripped over a rock that May had decided not to warn him about. He was now sitting on the ground, a little dazed, but otherwise uninjured. His book however… "Oh come on May, I lost my page!"

"Well I wasn't the one reading while walking through a mountain path!" May answered Drew's quip with her own, giving reason for Tracey to mutter, "Here we go again…" But surprisingly, the two didn't carry out their impending fight; instead Drew simply picked up his book and slipped it into his backpack.

Then out of nowhere, Serena gasped, leaving the rest of the group to ponder on what was wrong.

"What!?" Clement asked, "Did you find something?" peering over her at the digital map Serena held in her hands.

"Take a look at the forest here," Serena pointed to a spot in the middle of the map, "So?" Drew asked, as everyone crowded around her, she then explained, "the species of tree that grows there is called a sequoia, it's a type of redwood tree, now if the trees were growing there, we would most likely be in a damp, cold, and high elevation, and in this situation, none of these hold true. These trees get most of their water out of the air, there isn't very much water in the air her, it's too dry for this species even to live in this valley. With this in mind, maybe someone is keeping these things alive, like in a cover or something."

The rest of the group looked skeptical, "you really think?" May asked with disbelief. Serena shrugged, "It's worth a shot…"

"So we go and search this forest for any sighn of Ash or Max!" Tracey said, with certainty that that was what they were going to do. Every one else shrugged, before heading off in the direction of the forest.


	12. Chapter 12

**So let me explain a few things before we start. First off, I have not, as of yet, decided on the name of the Dark Leaf leader, and now for a clear up. You see, I normally post the ages of the characters before I start the story. For whatever reason, I thought I didn't need to do that on this story. That was stupid. Really stupid. It has made my Ages inconstant throughout the story… for that I'm so sorry. **

**The ages will be at the bottom of this note, and I will not change them again. Now about the Dark Leaf, The unnamed leader stands at the top of the power pyramid, with Yonah (Yo-na [a in Bark] meaning Bear.) and Walelu (Wa [A in Bark] Le [like in the name Walela] Lu [u sounds like 'oo'] meaning Hummingbird.) these two are in a rivalry for right hand man to the leader, causing unrest that the leader is to occupied to notice. Below them are the ordinary grunts of the team. The one difference about this team though is that they all use Aura. Now I know what you are all thinking, AVERAGE HUMAN, JUST CHOOSE A FREAKING AGE NOW! Alright! Ok, ok! Here is my final age change:**

**Ash: 14 Max: 10 May: 13 Drew: 14 Clement: 14 Serena: 14 Tracey: 16 Bonnie: 8**

**Now I know why I was so confused…**

*.*.*.

Footsteps echoed hollowly across the cement flooring of the large space; giving reason for both Ash, and Max to stand up, and look towards the sound. Yonah, along with Walelu walked towards the two. There, however, there was a third person, walking in front of the two, it was the Dark Leaf leader, and something, an invisible force maybe, compelled the two to take a step backwards away from the advances, however, it didn't stop Ash from yelling, "Are you going to tell us who you are now?" with noticeable annoyance hinging on his voice, however he did not say anything else, especially after Max muttered, with clear worry and fear, "Ash…" the leader however, laughed,

"I could, bit again, that was too, easy, and then the information, given out by me to just any weak trainer, would get to the police somehow, then it would be only a matter of time. Surprising though that you of all people, do not know, just who I am. But then, Giovanni was not in Palletown after I left. In hindsight I guess I shouldn't be surprised, Farwell for now, Ashton."

With that, the man, with a long brown-green cape that found itself a few inches off the floor, brown pants, and shoulder length raven black hair turned and walked away. Yonah and Walelu following suit, refusing to look at each other in the process. A slam was heard as the elevator closed, however, the lights stayed on, casting dark shadows over the already eerie surroundings.

"So what now"

In response to his friend's question, Ash just shrugged.

*.*.*.

"I'm Tired!" came a yell from the back of the posse,

"I know Bonnie, but as of now, there isn't much I can do!" Clement answered his little sister for what seemed the seventh time. They were trekking through the unnatural redwood, and Serena was staring up at the insanely tall trees that just an hour before, had been hidden behind a bend in the valley. Tracey was sulking because Drew had grabbed his sketchbook, just before the teen had fallen into a small creek. However, Drew had not, in any form, given it back.

Instead, Drew had put the book into his own backpack, telling Tracey that at least now the sixteen year old could watch where he was going. May was pouting because of the fact that no one would allow her to have any of the food the group had brought along. There was an uneasy silence floating through the woods. No Pokémon made their calls, no Pokémon were even seen.

"Serena, are we there yet?"

"To tell you the truth," Serena looked down at Bonnie, "I haven't the faintest truth."

"Then where are we even going!?" Clement yelled from where he was walking, a few feet behind Serena, looking completely run down. Serena just shrugged, "I was just following the map to the heart of the forest…"

Tracey sighed, "Works for me." He muttered, after all, according to energy traces; Serena was in fact, taking them in the right direction, for now.

Soon a large tree came into view, now we all know sequoias were tall, but this one towered over everything, being at least twice as tall as the other trees, give or take a few feet. Its trunk was so thick, that three Pokémon centers could fit next to each other inside of it, and still have enough room left for a few shops. And that was just at the foot of the tree. Other than its size, everyone except Tracey couldn't find very many differences about the tree, well, that everyone could see, or believe that he saw, and the sun was setting.

However, something about the tree being in the heart of the forest compelled the group to set up a camp site, and keep watch over the area around it, along with the tree itself. Clement set up a fire, and the sleeping bags, after all, they would be taking shifts watching the tree, and going around the acre of forest they had decided was the heart of the forest, and Bonnie, would be sleeping; Clement refused to let her stay up so late at night.

Serena was helping Bonnie set up the little girl's plant, while Drew and May were fighting over how to make dinner. Tracey meanwhile, was actually making the meal, behind the two fighting coordinators' backs. Tracey however, still refused to talk to Drew, who sat a few feet away from him, that is, until Drew said, "Here. Do you realize how heavy this thing is!? I really don't want to carry this thing around anymore." Tracey looked at his sketchbook, the one that Drew held out to him.

He slowly took the book from Drew, and took out his pencils; he then began to Draw Pikachu who was sleeping next to all the backpacks. The rift between the two trainers seemed to dissipate, lightening up the mood of the campsite dramatically.

**A/N; again sorry for the age problem… but on another note, I think I figured out why Ash and his Pikachu lose gym battles even though Pikachu is obviously high leveled. You ever notice how even in the games, as you progress through the region you are in, the levels of the gym leader's Pokémon gets higher and higher, it's because the gym leaders have to adjust themselves for the skill level of the trainers. Hence the reason that Pikachu didn't reset in X and Y, but still lost his first gym battle, he has already won over twenty badges in other regions, showing every gym in the Pokémon world is cued to give him a challenging battle, so that he doesn't just wipe the floor with every gym leader he meets. Thanks for reading! Please review! Later!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N; Hey guys sorry for the unexplained hiatus, I hit a bit of writers block, but I'm back. Back and ready to write!**

Bonnie had finally fallen asleep, and this was considered by all to be a good thing. The bad thing was that now they had to leave someone at the campsite to watch the sleeping girl. This debate over who it should be could have gone on for a few hours, if Pikachu hadn't volunteered, sitting on Bonnie's sleeping bag with his ears perked, ready for action.

May gave a weak laugh, "Don't worry Pikachu, we'll try our hardest to find Max and Ash."

"Chaaaaa." Was the answer she received.

The group decided to split into three separate groups, all searching around the tree in different places.

The groups consisted of the following:

Group one: Serena, Clement

Group Two: May and Drew

Tracey went off by himself to look at the tree, not giving any explanation. Everyone else looked at each other and shrugged. Serena guessed that he wanted to draw the ancient tree that loomed over the rest of the unnatural forest. She and Clement decided to search the side of the tree that they had made their camp on, that way Clement could come running if Bonnie Woke up. May and Drew took the other side of the tree, without any argument to the Kalos-natives, but they walked off bickering about what move combinations were better, Fire and Water, or, Electricity and Water

oOo

May and Drew walked through the dark forest. It was unnaturally quiet, not a Pokémon to be seen, or heard. It gave an uncomfortable feel to the darkness, and whenever a noise was heard, it caused the two coordinators to jump in surprise. Finally Drew voiced his thoughts,

"This is... Ridiculous. Why are we acting like a bunch of scared little kids on Halloween?" May looked around them at the darkness, their flashlight giving off a beam of yellow light into the night, "Because, Mr. Downer, we are scared, as much as you don't want to admit it, we. Are. Scared." Drew sighed, for once, he had no choice to admit that May was right. And it felt absurd to do so.

oOo

Serena and Clement didn't find much either, walking back and forth in lines throughout the forest wasn't the best strategy in the world for the two Kalos-natives. But Tracey just kept walking around the tree, looking at it in different directions and angles, going over bumps with his flashlight, looking at the tree in different lights. Even drawing parts of it to get a better grip on its makeup, it was just a hunch, but something about the structure of the tree didn't line up with other trees in the area. He began running his hands over the tree, places where there were unusual bumps, and dents in it, but there was nothing he could find; until his hand pressed a hidden button in a knothole, that was when the tree started to glow.

Tracey stumbled backward at the light blue light that encased an invisible entrance in the tree. Clement and Serena, who were around twenty to thirty feet away, came running as well, just to stop next to the older teen and stare as a door seemed to materialize out of nowhere. "What did you do?" Serena gasped as the door materialized to show a dark staircase leading down into the depths of the ground.

Clement took a step back, "I'll go find May and Drew!" before he turned and ran off in the direction the Hoenn-natives had taken, leaving Tracey and Serena to look into the gaping hole in front of them.

"should we go in?" Serena looked at Tracey in questioning, however the older teen only nodded, and started off into the downwards spiral of stairs. Serena had to run to catch up. The staircase grew wider as the two descended downwards, they came to a landing, were the two had to make a choice, continue on down the stairs, or go through the door to confront whatever was in the tree. "You go on down, and I'll look beyond the door." Tracey stated this more than suggested, and walked towards the door. Serena shrugged, and continued on down the stairs.

It was eerily quiet as she descended, dripping of water could be heard, as she walked down, the walls that had been made of the inside of the tree, had changed to being made out of dirt, rocks, and in some places, bricks. Shadows cast themselves up ahead of her as every once in a while, she passed by a small torch hanging on the wall. This was until the stairs stopped, leaving her to stand uncertainly at the large metal door in front of her. Sure she had two Pokémon, but Serena wasn't sure that she could confront whatever had made such a gargantuan hideout. But after a few minutes she came to terms with herself, gingerly opened the door, and walked in. the door creaking closed as she passed through.

She gasped, as the door closed behind her, leaving her in a large decorated room that resembled a museum. Of blue glowing tubes, almost as tall as her, each with something that reminded her of an aura sphere inside. Beyond that were rocks and other objects, but beyond that was something horrifying. Humans. Not alive. But more like well-preserved corpses. As she forced herself to walk through, she read a few descriptions under the bodies. They were called Aura-guardians, whatever that was. Serena quickened her pace, until she was running across the room, the walls felt as though they were closing in around her. Soon she came upon the door, thrust it open and ran through. Only to find herself face to face with Tracey. Who yelped and stumbled backwards.

"There you are!" she breathed, out of breath from her experience.

"What's in there?" Tracey didn't answer her, instead asking her a question in return. He started towards the door behind her, but she chocked out "No!" Tracey stopped, in his place, "what's wrong?" he asked, his hand poised over the door knob, "people." Serena gasped as an answer, "Tracey's eyes widened, "did they attack you?" he asked. Serena shook her head, "they weren't alive; they were being displayed… like… like trophies." Tracey took his hand away from the door, "okay." Was all he could think of to say. And the two descended down the stairwell they had found during Serena's mad rush out of the room. Serena seemed to have calmed down when the two got to the bottom of the stairs. Even So, opening the door was still a nerve racking task to the young teen.

However all that waited on the other side was stacks and stacks of boxes, boxes piled up to the ceiling of the warehouse like room. It was extremely dark, that is, until Tracey found a light switch on a wall a few feet away from what looked like an elevator, this was when Serena asked, "Where do you think everyone is?" All Tracey could do was shrug as the two walked down a pathway between the piles and piles of boxes. Serena gasped, and Tracey stiffened as the two continued down the pathway, the boxes turning to barred cells. As they continued down the pathway, the lights seemed to dim, and the walls seemed to come closer and closer to each other.

Soon the two came to the end of the pathway, and though Tracey was looking in front of him, Serena was looking from side to side, letting the older teen lead her on down the walkway. However when Tracey gasped and ran forward, she pulled herself out of her revere, to look at what Tracey had seen, but there was no need, because she heard an all too familiar voice yell, "Tracey!?"

**A/N;** **Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, I know I know, AVERAGE HUMAN, WHY SO SHORT THE CHAPTERS, wait, some people have horrible grammar, let's try this again, AVRGE HMN Y U NO HAVE BIG CHPTR! Sorry I just like making fun of people that use text talk on a website based solely around writing. It's just my opinion, and if you hate me for it, I DO NOT CARE. Thanks for reading. **


	14. Moving story to my cousin's page

I never thought I would make one of these. I actually hate reading stories only to have them end in an Author's note. I'm so sorry for leaving this story unfinished, I have writers block, along with everything else going on in my life, I tend to joke that my body is slowly killing me, but sometimes I'm not that far from the truth. I just can't finish the story. I'm giving it to my cousin, you can find her on this site: Antisocial Bookworm. She lives across the state, but we'll be communicating, so I will still have a large influence on how this story will be rewritten, so do not fear, one day it will be finished, and again, I'm so sorry, you have no idea how much of a hypocrite I feel like right now. But do not fear, one day maybe I can come back to this story, just, on my cousin's profile, you see, it'll probably be a collaboration, but do not worry, I'm getting my blood tested soon, they're going to see what they can do. Do not mistake my sarcasm when I say I have SUCH high hopes for what they find. Hope I don't turn out like my other cousin, Sid, she died a few years back, cancer, things like that seem to run in the family, ya know? I'll say it one last time, I AM SO SORRY! Find this story on Antisocial Bookworm's page, not today, but soon. And don't worry, I'll still have a hand in the rewrite. And in the words of Jake from Vsause, it's not good bye, it's never goodbye, it's see ya later! (Or was it worded differently... Oh well) DFTBA! (I feel like a horrible person right now)


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